Flexible Learning Environments

Student needs drive the design of the learning environment. All operational elements—staffing plans, space utilization and time allocation—respond and adapt to support students in achieving their goals.

How does the physical environment in your classroom support personalized learning? In this section, you will explore ways to adjust your classroom to support the needs of your students.

Steps:

1. Read this blog post with lots of pictures and ideas for changing your classroom environment.

2. Watch this video from Edutopia featuring Albemarle County Public Schools

4. Now it is time to design your own classroom. One idea is to use TinkerCad to create your classroom in 3D. There are over 4 million designs in the gallery. For instructions go to https://www.tinkercad.com/about/learn. If you prefer, you can use another method for sketching out your personalized classroom, such as creating a sketch by hand and taking a picture of it to upload.

5. As you design your classroom the needs of all students should be addressed. The type of seating, tables, lighting and manipulatives are all as important as the layout of the room. Here is a short article about a Michigan teacher who has made a flexible seating paradise for all learners! Make sure to check out the additional resources on this page for more ideas.

6. Share your completed design with your instructor.

If you would like to try a more complicated program, try out SketchUp Make, the free version of SketchUp from Google. The software does have to be downloaded. Check out these tutorials.

21Things4Teachers is a project of the Regional Educational Media Center Association of Michigan. The REMC Association promotes the transformative use of technology and provides Michigan schools with access to educational resources to help teachers increase student success. For more information, visit remc.org, or connect with the REMC Association on social media at, facebook.com/REMCAssociation and twitter.com/REMCAssociation.